tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132147172015-03-02T20:04:10.691+00:00Front Free EndpaperAn eclectic mix of book collecting and dealing, gay life, gay sex, science fiction and victorian photographsCallumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.comBlogger2194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-69964401917352868182015-03-02T20:04:00.000+00:002015-03-02T20:04:10.727+00:00Some Nudes by Donald Friend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YlgiNNvQS-U/VPS9gSUPUtI/AAAAAAAAQ30/BcOvSgIX4ZM/s1600/71147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YlgiNNvQS-U/VPS9gSUPUtI/AAAAAAAAQ30/BcOvSgIX4ZM/s1600/71147.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></div><br />I was cataloguing and flicking through a couple of books by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Friend">Donald Friend</a> today. A twentieth century Australian artist and diarist, Friend is accepted as a major artist in the Australian canon although he sits there somewhat uneasily given his decided bias towards languid depictions of beautiful youths. His draughtsmanship is astonishing for the way he captures mood and meaning as well as line and shape. It is notable how many of his nudes have a 'tropical' sense of lethargy: the quality of a dream or a daydream is never far away from them.<br /><br />None of these here come from the books I was looking at today. Rather, I got a little carried away in my surfing of the internet and found these all already online: many from auction houses where Friend's works can no command many thousands of pounds. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T6UqzXhasNc/VPS9fP5vHBI/AAAAAAAAQ3o/-N5FjvL62Wo/s1600/64248296.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T6UqzXhasNc/VPS9fP5vHBI/AAAAAAAAQ3o/-N5FjvL62Wo/s1600/64248296.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a7hTtciRQes/VPS9gIXzNYI/AAAAAAAAQ3w/gDWpOJ9p5fI/s1600/Colin1946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a7hTtciRQes/VPS9gIXzNYI/AAAAAAAAQ3w/gDWpOJ9p5fI/s1600/Colin1946.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ClfrzOcpxxs/VPS9q7OnIcI/AAAAAAAAQ5Y/cXU_2aBg0zA/s1600/friend1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ClfrzOcpxxs/VPS9q7OnIcI/AAAAAAAAQ5Y/cXU_2aBg0zA/s1600/friend1.jpg" height="320" width="231" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I-SnqVw_WYM/VPS9hg1N6nI/AAAAAAAAQ4A/JirmbpNk7Y0/s1600/God%2BFigure%2B(The%2BCave%2Bat%2BBratan)%2BBali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I-SnqVw_WYM/VPS9hg1N6nI/AAAAAAAAQ4A/JirmbpNk7Y0/s1600/God%2BFigure%2B(The%2BCave%2Bat%2BBratan)%2BBali.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jkXUkMW4goQ/VPS9rvmrVTI/AAAAAAAAQ5g/QQHr3DZ09pc/s1600/mountebanks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jkXUkMW4goQ/VPS9rvmrVTI/AAAAAAAAQ5g/QQHr3DZ09pc/s1600/mountebanks.jpg" height="320" width="233" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BAKTLEpxjq0/VPS9i55gr4I/AAAAAAAAQ4I/aL7FJghlk1w/s1600/Omu%2BLondon%2B1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BAKTLEpxjq0/VPS9i55gr4I/AAAAAAAAQ4I/aL7FJghlk1w/s1600/Omu%2BLondon%2B1953.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z0o3nq0IWXE/VPS9jDLtQaI/AAAAAAAAQ4M/XgXCJ6U2LJI/s1600/Rolando%2BFlorence%2B1949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z0o3nq0IWXE/VPS9jDLtQaI/AAAAAAAAQ4M/XgXCJ6U2LJI/s1600/Rolando%2BFlorence%2B1949.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49SjXeOUY8I/VPS9j1Ncb7I/AAAAAAAAQ4Y/WurR5yWZNKM/s1600/Rolando%2BFlorence%2B1952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49SjXeOUY8I/VPS9j1Ncb7I/AAAAAAAAQ4Y/WurR5yWZNKM/s1600/Rolando%2BFlorence%2B1952.jpg" height="201" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yxYeCKOM-S4/VPS9kGznflI/AAAAAAAAQ4c/IEk4efXUOOI/s1600/Rolando.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yxYeCKOM-S4/VPS9kGznflI/AAAAAAAAQ4c/IEk4efXUOOI/s1600/Rolando.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ot0yPqQ9AsM/VPS9m_5nLDI/AAAAAAAAQ4s/_n2Hu9B92xY/s1600/Stuart%2BHolmes%2BWith%2BGun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ot0yPqQ9AsM/VPS9m_5nLDI/AAAAAAAAQ4s/_n2Hu9B92xY/s1600/Stuart%2BHolmes%2BWith%2BGun.jpg" height="320" width="231" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1obqs-5QdE/VPS9mV_65lI/AAAAAAAAQ4o/fDe6madp14c/s1600/Study%2B1952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1obqs-5QdE/VPS9mV_65lI/AAAAAAAAQ4o/fDe6madp14c/s1600/Study%2B1952.jpg" height="202" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A7GoaLV6Ij4/VPS9nQ2nzeI/AAAAAAAAQ40/-qdtMTPle8E/s1600/Study%2Bof%2BOmu%2B1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A7GoaLV6Ij4/VPS9nQ2nzeI/AAAAAAAAQ40/-qdtMTPle8E/s1600/Study%2Bof%2BOmu%2B1953.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tMG9smCk0Bw/VPS9n4Pm1CI/AAAAAAAAQ48/k2o3RXS-DXg/s1600/The%2BApotheosis%2Bof%2BRichard%2BKeep%2B1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tMG9smCk0Bw/VPS9n4Pm1CI/AAAAAAAAQ48/k2o3RXS-DXg/s1600/The%2BApotheosis%2Bof%2BRichard%2BKeep%2B1963.jpg" height="243" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g-773gTUtdw/VPS9ohzuT7I/AAAAAAAAQ5E/Zq8Vm9CQtI4/s1600/Three%2BBalinese%2BBoys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g-773gTUtdw/VPS9ohzuT7I/AAAAAAAAQ5E/Zq8Vm9CQtI4/s1600/Three%2BBalinese%2BBoys.jpg" height="230" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0PRJ4NgJ6MU/VPS9o6h3ZiI/AAAAAAAAQ5M/qaVdGv5ND7w/s1600/Three%2BBoys%2Bat%2BRest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0PRJ4NgJ6MU/VPS9o6h3ZiI/AAAAAAAAQ5M/qaVdGv5ND7w/s1600/Three%2BBoys%2Bat%2BRest.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-62180831173922752272015-03-01T21:55:00.001+00:002015-03-01T21:55:36.539+00:00A Boy in the House by Mazo de la Roche<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tE0TC4ZfF4M/VPOKCEGxRGI/AAAAAAAAQ3U/kup_1Nm6eS0/s1600/ScanImage001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tE0TC4ZfF4M/VPOKCEGxRGI/AAAAAAAAQ3U/kup_1Nm6eS0/s1600/ScanImage001.jpg" height="400" width="262" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This rather charming drawing on the front of a 1952 novella by once famous, now overlooked author Mazo de la Roche is rather charming I thought. It is uncredited on the jacket and unsigned as far as I can see.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If any of you knowledgeable readers of FFEP has read this book I would be really grateful if you could email me using the link to the top right of this page. </div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-51834544050284378582015-02-28T19:00:00.000+00:002015-02-28T19:00:52.087+00:00The Book Catalogues of Michael deHartington<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j6BLNKtlkhM/VPHYnd5EplI/AAAAAAAAQ2A/B-ajS-KxXM4/s1600/dehartington1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j6BLNKtlkhM/VPHYnd5EplI/AAAAAAAAQ2A/B-ajS-KxXM4/s1600/dehartington1.jpg" height="400" width="318" /></a></div><br />Back in June last year I was delighted&nbsp; to acquire for my own collection an almost complete set of the original book catalogues of Michael deHartington. If you think that the name has a slightly 'arch' sound to it, perhaps the ring of a tekinym, you would be right but who am I to puncture such a lovely legend. With typical speed and sense of urgency it is only now that I thought I would spend a little time going through them and making a note or two to share with you all about the items that stand out to me. I should stress the "to me": there are abundant goodies in these catalogues and I am only going to mention the things that catch my eye for some reason or another. The original catalogues are quite scarce now but if you want to read them yourselves then there was a facsimile reprint of 300 copies by The Elysium Press under the Asphodel Imprint in 1998.<br /><br />Catalogue number one, like nearly all of them is a&nbsp; few pages of hand-Roneo-ed typescript. All the catalogues date from the early 1970s and number one was issued in 1972. Turning the first couple of pages one is struck in particular by short lists of books by Baron d'Adersward Fersen and Ralph Chubb: both of which are bearing prices enough to make one weep in 2015. Would you like, for example a copy of one of the 36 entirely hand lithographed copies of Chubb's <i>The Heavenly Cupid</i> in half green morocco with black corduroy boards for just £100? Also catching my eye in #1 is a series of original drawings by Gaston Goor, each about 19" x 14" and all six are separately described as depicting nude youths disporting themselves in various settings and priced at £50 for the set, less than £10 each.<br /><br />In the section of 'Manuscripts and Letters' at the end of the list you might have been lucky to buy for just £5, '14 Queer Poems Written in the Summer of 1967' by Robin Maugham, "one of just four copies reproduced from typewriter script". If anyone visiting here knows where these now are please do let me know!<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tvjn_MGIhXg/VPHYoZuNJMI/AAAAAAAAQ2I/dB8J8I95arU/s1600/dehartington2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tvjn_MGIhXg/VPHYoZuNJMI/AAAAAAAAQ2I/dB8J8I95arU/s1600/dehartington2.jpg" height="400" width="283" /></a></div><br />One of the books that stands out to me in catalogue #2 is one of 250 copies of Gerald Hamilton's <i>Desert Dreamers</i>, published under the pseudonym Patrick Weston (C. W. Beaumont, London: 1914). Hamilton was the real person on whom Christopher Isherwood's Mr Norris was based in his 1930s Berlin novels and <i>Desert Dreamers</i> is one of the earliest novels to be published in the UK to concern itself with homosexuality. The extra interest in this copy though comes from the exlibris plate of C. R. Dawes. "The fine collection of homosexual literature collected by Charles Reginald Dawes was mostly bequeathed to the British Museum. Fortunately for collectors there was a discreet sale of duplicates ('The Property of a Gentleman') sold at Sotheby's and other items were sold direct to booksellers".&nbsp; As of today there is no copy of the 1914 edition available on abebooks and copies of the 1966 reprint are being offered at over £100. This copy could have been yours for £17.50<br /><br />Also in this catalogue appears one of the books by a favourite eccentric of ours Major R. Raven-Hart the obsessive canoeist. As deHartington comments, "It the times the word 'boy' appear in this book would equal the number of runs scored by England against Australia this year, we would surely retain the Ashes."<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yz6dtIDNyaA/VPHYohsp2BI/AAAAAAAAQ2U/zbUk0X09gBI/s1600/dehartington3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yz6dtIDNyaA/VPHYohsp2BI/AAAAAAAAQ2U/zbUk0X09gBI/s1600/dehartington3.jpg" height="400" width="287" /></a></div><br />Much of the stock of Michael deHartington Booksellers came from the collection amassed by Timothy d'Arch Smith in his research and writing of his 1970 book about the Uranian poets, Love in Earnest. This third catalogues, the only one to be letterpress printed, contained the central portion of that collection. To anyone familiar with Love in Earnest it really requires little extrapolation. Here are association copies and ALS of some of the rarest items by the authors about whom d'Arch Smith was writing.<br /><br />Item 67 was Horatio Brown's inscribed copy of John Gambril Nicholson's <i>A Garland of Ladslove</i>. In March last year I had the pleasure of cataloguing and selling the same copy thus:<br /><br />"NICHOLSON, John Gambril. A Garland of Ladslove. Privately Printed [by F. E. Murray], 1911.<br />Signed and inscribed by the author to Horatio Brown, fellow Uranian poet and Venetian historian.<br />This is the same copy that was used by Timothy d’Arch Smith to write his seminal study Love in<br />Earnest and which was later sold as a part of the collection he amassed during the writing of the<br />book in catalogue no.3 (item no. 67) of Michael deHartington. The inscription is illustrated as<br />plate 10 in <i>Love in Earnest</i>. The book has d’Arch Smith’s bookplate by Gaston Goor. Also laid in<br />is a photograph of the author annotated “John Gambril Nicholson photographed by himself Dec<br />1894”. The photograph measures approximately 8.5cm x 6cm and is almost entirely obliterated<br />by silvering; however, held to the light and looking through the verso, the image of a young and<br />handsome Nicholson can still be seen. The photograph appears to belong with this copy as it has<br />“Brown” written in Nicholson’s hand on the verso in pencil. It seems possible this copy was never<br />sent to Brown or to Venice as it was acquired by Victor Hall from Murray’s estate as a part of a<br />pile of remainders. In a previous collection of poems Nicholson earned the ire and legal threats of<br />Frederick Rolfe by using material by him allegedly without permission; this current collection has a<br />poem subtitled “from the Italian of Baron Corvo”, perhaps Nicholson was concerned this might be<br />seen by Rolfe in Venice on Brown’s shelves and cause more trouble and so it was never sent. (for<br />the photo: FFEP 260214). Paper labels a little spotted and browned."<br /><br />I'm afraid to say that whilst you might have bought this book in the 1970s from Michael deHartington for £30, I sold it very quickly at £400.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gLcMe0HuY6U/VPHYpdss3sI/AAAAAAAAQ2c/GbR1xCz-RU8/s1600/dehartington4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gLcMe0HuY6U/VPHYpdss3sI/AAAAAAAAQ2c/GbR1xCz-RU8/s1600/dehartington4.jpg" height="400" width="278" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A rather fun cartoon illustration graces the front of catalogue #4. On the very first page the things that catch my eye are three pamphlets by Oswell Blakeston: <i>The Furious Futures Dying </i>(1967)<i>, Before the Encounter and Afterwards: A Squence </i>(1966)<i>,</i> and <i>Jeremy and Others </i>(Undated)<i>.</i> All three now vanishingly scarce and worth considerably more than the 50 pence each asked for them in the early 70s.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Towering above all else in this catalogue though was the holograph MSS of Ralph Chubb's <i>The Book of Visions of Nature and Supernature Solar and Lunar</i> from 1930. The MSS was bound and included a full-page watercolour as well as a watercolour vignette and other decorations. It was never published. Just £200.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DORIUx4P6AM/VPHYqv-yuEI/AAAAAAAAQ2o/abIQ7F6I3eE/s1600/dehartington5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DORIUx4P6AM/VPHYqv-yuEI/AAAAAAAAQ2o/abIQ7F6I3eE/s1600/dehartington5.jpg" height="400" width="281" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The cover of catalogue #5 comes from the book Gergorio Prieto: Paintings and Drawings <a href="http://callumjames.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/gregorio-prieto.html">which has featured here on FFEP before</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This catalogue illustrates very nicely the way in which older catalogues like this are useful to the collector today: they introduce you to books you might otherwise not hear about. <i>&nbsp;</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Holiday</i> by Michael Power (1962), "Adolescent's traumatic encounter with a pederast adds to his summer holiday problems."&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The Partnership</i> by Barry Unsworth (1966), "Two young men go into business making plaster pixies and the discovery by one that the other is homosexually attracted to him causes the gradual disintegration of the partnership. A subtle, humorous first novel which seems to have been quite forgotten". <i>&nbsp;</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>A Prison Song in Prose</i> by G. K. Van Het Reve (1968) "A sadistic fantasy with graphic illustrations" (and one of the few books whose 1970s price is about the same as you would pay today). </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wTqkc8YKHQk/VPHYrsTiPhI/AAAAAAAAQ2w/-_D4S-sD6ao/s1600/dehartington6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wTqkc8YKHQk/VPHYrsTiPhI/AAAAAAAAQ2w/-_D4S-sD6ao/s1600/dehartington6.jpg" height="400" width="321" /></a></div><br />The only rarity that jumps out at me from this list is a copy of the photographic book <i>Ortil's Canoe Pirates </i>by Hajo Ortil (1966) selling here for £3.45 and now not short of one hundred times that amount.<br /><br />But again, more items are described with just enough detail of plot to make them interesting, <i>Latitudes of Love</i> by Thomas Doremus (1961), "Dying man's last romance with a sixteen year-old boy" (and not expensive today).<br /><br /><i>The Frauds </i>by Michael Hastings (1960), "Saga of a family including a boy, Tommy, and his discovery that he is homosexual".<br /><br /><i><span class="st">La séduction inachevée</span></i> by Anne-Marie Heuber (1972), "Boy who is having an incestuous affair with his sister becomes infatuated with her boyfriend as well" (sadly never translated to English as far as I can ascertain).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_UOnnVTZ57c/VPHYrmkVSRI/AAAAAAAAQ20/17p9kEuWG34/s1600/dehartington7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_UOnnVTZ57c/VPHYrmkVSRI/AAAAAAAAQ20/17p9kEuWG34/s1600/dehartington7.jpg" height="400" width="320" /></a></div><br />I confess, my interest in straightforward public school fiction is limited, so at first sight it appears this particular list might have passed me by. However, one has to note the copies from the <i>Diary of a Boy</i> series by Aubrey Fowkes which would make anyone trying to collect a set now weep to see them at two or three pounds each. Also a copy of <i>Tim</i> by Howard Overing Sturgis for just £6. A curious item is <i>Auerbachs Deutscher Kinder Kalender 1938 </i>catalogued as a "Nazi Boys' Annual". <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BLupzdJf4XM/VPHYsC_lwHI/AAAAAAAAQ24/BM_r0-HyhII/s1600/dehartington8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BLupzdJf4XM/VPHYsC_lwHI/AAAAAAAAQ24/BM_r0-HyhII/s1600/dehartington8.jpg" height="400" width="320" /></a></div><br />After a couple of list which have been somewhat lighter shall we say, catalogue #8 contains over 200 items but on slightly closer inspection many of them have appeared in previous lists. Among them two John Gambril Nicholson rarities, <i>The Romance of a Choir Boy </i>(1916) and <i>Rydal Mount Plays </i>(1922) which are the short plays that Nicholson wrote for his boys at the Rydal Mount school where he taught for many years. At £15.15 and £7.65 respectively, one winces a little to think what prices are attached to them now, when you can find them.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AcmO3BdwfLI/VPHYoTn7bjI/AAAAAAAAQ2M/_7Vu7rXT19g/s1600/dehartington10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AcmO3BdwfLI/VPHYoTn7bjI/AAAAAAAAQ2M/_7Vu7rXT19g/s1600/dehartington10.jpg" height="400" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is a actually catalogue #10, I am missing number nine and, whilst I could look it up in the Asphodel facsimile, I'm sticking the to the originals I have in front of me here. Most of the first part of this list marks a bit of a change from previous lists and concentrates very hard on non-fiction sexological works concerned with homosexuality, most of these in German or French and most of little interest today. One notable exception though would have to be the one of the 125 copies of the 1908 edition of E. P. Stevenson's <i>The Intersexes </i>written as by Xavier Mayne for £75 and E. P. Warren's three volume <i>A Defence of Uranian Love</i> written under the name Arthur Lyon Raile, "one of the rarest of all books on this subject" for £80.<br /><br />There are certainly other highlights in these catalogues that I have missed or which might simply appeal more to those of a more refined taste than mine. Reading through them is a real pleasure, beyond the grumpy references to what prices books used to be catalogues like these provide signposts to follow towards books previously unknown... what could be better.<br /><br />Mr deHartington, I salute you...Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-14315948907968568402015-02-24T15:54:00.003+00:002015-02-24T15:54:22.729+00:00George Barr Illustrates Green Phoenix by Thomas Burnett Swann<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EkFoMQ7DYRI/VOyd58OrnLI/AAAAAAAAQ1Q/MkXMayjLCHA/s1600/barr2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EkFoMQ7DYRI/VOyd58OrnLI/AAAAAAAAQ1Q/MkXMayjLCHA/s1600/barr2.jpg" height="400" width="250" /></a></div><br />Yesterday I mentioned that one of the reasons I might be drawn to <i>Green Phoenix</i> next out of all the Thomas Burnett Swann books I have, was the attractive nature of the illustrations by George Barr. I thought maybe it was unfair not to share these.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d1J91Cx137Y/VOyd6tcSEwI/AAAAAAAAQ1U/dmBnYt4Qe8M/s1600/barr3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d1J91Cx137Y/VOyd6tcSEwI/AAAAAAAAQ1U/dmBnYt4Qe8M/s1600/barr3.jpg" height="400" width="242" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MtraOzGIzsk/VOyd4q88SRI/AAAAAAAAQ1I/OdqA-QgMrtM/s1600/barr1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MtraOzGIzsk/VOyd4q88SRI/AAAAAAAAQ1I/OdqA-QgMrtM/s1600/barr1.jpg" height="400" width="245" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-13ppfyp0LC8/VOyd75sGPoI/AAAAAAAAQ1g/bQwt-ZZ3HrM/s1600/barr4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-13ppfyp0LC8/VOyd75sGPoI/AAAAAAAAQ1g/bQwt-ZZ3HrM/s1600/barr4.jpg" height="400" width="235" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-58359617555337413862015-02-23T23:27:00.001+00:002015-02-23T23:27:54.764+00:00Thomas Burnett Swann<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--bxWVDqHXYk/VOuwuiWPSfI/AAAAAAAAQ0Y/itjMb9QypcQ/s1600/swann2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--bxWVDqHXYk/VOuwuiWPSfI/AAAAAAAAQ0Y/itjMb9QypcQ/s1600/swann2.jpg" height="400" width="262" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is often the way in this business that you are vaguely aware of an author's name, perhaps from an article or the internet, or someone has mentioned them to you and then months or years later suddenly you find yourself with a superfluity of their books. This happened to me just after Christmas when these five books by Thomas Burnett Swann (1928-1976) came out of a box I was sorting and I thought, 'ah, I've been meaning to have a look at this chap'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And one of the silver linings of being unwell for a little while is that I have had some time to read a bit. I am no expert on Swann and for far better coverage I would direct you to the pages that author of gay erotica and Roman historical novels <a href="http://www.stevensaylor.com/ThomasBurnettSwann/index.html">Steven Saylor has put up in Swann's honour</a>. Swann's Wiki page <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Burnett_Swann">talks a little about Swann's forward thinking approach to sexuality</a> in his books and, although I have so far only read <i>The Lady of the Bees</i> and the title story of <i>The Dolphin and the Deep</i>, there is a very enjoyable frisson all the way through both of these books.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Swann's main setting across a lot of his books was his own version of classical history in which he chronicled the downfall of the non-human races and the beginning of human 'civilization'. Characters run around in a state of semi or complete nudity much of the time and at the centre of both of the books I have read are same-sex relationships far more real and stronger than the heterosexual love interest. In <i>The Lady of the Bees</i> the abiding relationship is between a faun called Sylvan and a young man Remus (of "Romulus and...."). In <i>The Dolphin and the Deep</i>, despite the fact that the wealthy Etruscan adventurer-protagonist is on a quest to find love in the shape of Circe, a mythical and dangerous beauty who disappeared a hundred years before, he is clearly most smitten throughout the long story with the Merboy Astyanix, his companion on the adventure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Swann doesn't write in the conventional mode of a psychologically driven novel, his stories are 'Tales' in the old sense, a strong narrative pervades and you feel you might be reading a classical myth rather than a 1960s fantasy novel. But I am finding that the little effort required to adjust to reading a different style is much rewarded.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next I shall be reading<i> Green Phoenix</i>, partly because it is in the same trilogy as <i>The Lady of the Bees </i>but mainly because the artwork of George Barr both on the cover and inside the book promises plenty of lissome fey sprites and hunky centaurs!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lXdDBJxz8hc/VOuwwbjY3AI/AAAAAAAAQ0o/bq2I8xKpbbU/s1600/swann1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lXdDBJxz8hc/VOuwwbjY3AI/AAAAAAAAQ0o/bq2I8xKpbbU/s1600/swann1.jpg" height="400" width="241" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ssf-JkYTV30/VOuwvgwACHI/AAAAAAAAQ0g/J0A8mzQINuA/s1600/swann3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ssf-JkYTV30/VOuwvgwACHI/AAAAAAAAQ0g/J0A8mzQINuA/s1600/swann3.jpg" height="400" width="237" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dFdl_PTZs6k/VOuwxtjA9_I/AAAAAAAAQ0w/L4wFOz5QRpg/s1600/swann4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dFdl_PTZs6k/VOuwxtjA9_I/AAAAAAAAQ0w/L4wFOz5QRpg/s1600/swann4.jpg" height="400" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BCjIFpxyGS4/VOuwykAf_7I/AAAAAAAAQ04/26NTDit2pKw/s1600/swann5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BCjIFpxyGS4/VOuwykAf_7I/AAAAAAAAQ04/26NTDit2pKw/s1600/swann5.jpg" height="400" width="238" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-82348504847653441812015-02-22T21:15:00.000+00:002015-02-22T21:16:21.228+00:00Figures in a Landscape by Lionel Wiggam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jybwciGSo9A/VOpFNJILCXI/AAAAAAAAQyg/ytoTUhDdGwc/s1600/nason1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jybwciGSo9A/VOpFNJILCXI/AAAAAAAAQyg/ytoTUhDdGwc/s1600/nason1.jpg" height="297" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Back in June 2013 <a href="http://callumjames.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/lionel-wiggam-photo.html">I posted a scan of a photograph I had acquired</a> of a handsome young man called Lionel Wiggam. He was, among other things, a poet, and his first volume of poetry called <i>Figures in a Landscape </i>was published when he was only 19 and included a body of work that had been put together in the years before then. (It contained some rather fine woodcuts by Thomas W Nason, some of which are reproduced here) I confess - although back in 2013 I promised I would find a copy of his book and read it - I didn't.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qI0TGZwTH4o/VOpFOEPnybI/AAAAAAAAQyw/4nCeKdiQYDg/s1600/nason2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qI0TGZwTH4o/VOpFOEPnybI/AAAAAAAAQyw/4nCeKdiQYDg/s1600/nason2.jpg" height="397" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Then a few months ago I was contacted by Scott who was connected, very loosely to one of Lionel's partners and who was glad to find the photograph on the blog. I promised Scott I would make good on my commitment to buy and read some of Lionel's poems and we agreed to both find a copy of <i>Figures in a Landscape</i> and report back. It is a very flawed book but this only made me more intrigued to know something more about the very young man who wrote it. Reports of the kind of man that Lionel became are very varied with some internet tributes talking about a warm and friendly man and a good neighbour, others suggesting maybe that there was a level of bitterness and cynicism and a rather prickly persona. But<i> Figures in a Landscape</i> is like a psychological mine to be dug through for a sense of a person. The first section is a sequence of poems which look back to a childhood, remembered landscapes and they are distinguished by their lack of emotional impact. There is a sequence which follows that contains poems about women. There is no excusing nor ameliorating the misogyny in that sequence. Women are generalized into a group of cold, unfeeling, twisted human beings. How anyone could have become quite so bitter about an entire gender by the age of 19 becomes a fascinating question and, in a way, reading those uncomfortable words it becomes much more interesting as a question than the poems themselves.<br /><br />Biographical details are scarce though. The blurb on the dustjacket however, perhaps unwittingly, paints a picture of a boy for whom life has already been an unusual and rather unstable experience. "At twenty, Lionel Wiggam is a student in the School of Speech at Northwestern University where he is paying his own way with the help of scholarships, poetry readings, odd jobs and the pittance that accrues from selling verse to magazines. He was born in 1915 in Columbus, Indiana, the son of prize fighter and a farmer's daughter. The father, at one time welterweight champion, owned his own sideshow in a carnival, and the family travelled about the Middle West on his pugilistic tours, letting the boy pick up his education where he could. He entered Northwestern University at the age of fifteen but left it again for the following three years, playing in a stock-company, working on a road construction gang, modelling professionally, hanging wall-paper and working as a janitor to pay for night school classes." (It strikes me this blurb might itself be written by Wiggam, certainly there is something of a narrative being constructed there and it perhaps begins to hint at how some of the elements in the poems might have been generated from this rather chaotic childhood. <br /><br />There are good poems in this collection. As individual works some of them are very finely crafted and one can see why, as a youth, he would have been seen as something of a prodigy. One poem in particular I thought spoke eloquently of the difficulties that Wiggam is attempting to articulate about his short life thus far...<br /><br />Stuggle<br /><br />Being less of man than elf,<br />A boy must overcome himself.<br />Let him flee, or let him fight,<br />Let him struggle through the night.<br /><br />His cheek will grow a golden beard,<br />Symbol of the thing he feared.<br />His voice will find a lower note<br />And stifle boyhood in his throat.<br /><br />Oh, he must overcome the joy<br />The laughter of that other boy<br />And beat him down, and see surprise<br />Rise in his stricken, loving eyes.<br /><br />Until, articulate and sad,<br />He turns away the other lad;<br />And seeks a dark forgotten place<br />To hide his weeping face.<br /><br />I should say I am very grateful to Scott, my correspondent, for prompting me to find and read the book and also for his insightful comments, even if his opinion of the poetry is somewhat more strongly negative. Despite the high praise that litters the rest of the dustjacket, Wiggam only wrote one more volume of poetry, twenty years distant from this first. I suppose the next step in my journey to understand him is to get hold of a copy of that and see where twenty years have taken us.<br /><br /><i>If anyone should stumble across this post because they are searching the internet for the name of their late friend Lionel Wiggam, please do get in touch: any biographical details would be very much appreciated. </i><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DK08FbpHIQ/VOpFNgtrjfI/AAAAAAAAQyo/U9O4ZDwRYTE/s1600/nason3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2DK08FbpHIQ/VOpFNgtrjfI/AAAAAAAAQyo/U9O4ZDwRYTE/s1600/nason3.jpg" height="400" width="372" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Chase<br /><br />We never dreamed the happy chase<br />Would end in that disturbing place:<br />Green, quiet cave with pines that were<br />A roof above its singular guest -<br />He with a faun's alarming face,<br />He with a boy's thin, angular breast<br />Subsiding into fur.<br /><br />We thought to find a worried fox<br />Observing us with blazing eyes<br />Behind an ambuscade of rocks;<br />Until we saw the hounds withdraw,<br />Disclosing that small pointed head<br />And hoofs all torn: until we saw<br />A bleeding pixy-face, instead.<br />And then, like us, the hounds that were<br />Suddenly grown quieter.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-75009753187305128422015-01-30T15:32:00.003+00:002015-02-22T21:18:33.037+00:00Hiatus<span style="font-size: large;">Well...</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My apologies for the break. And for the fact that it may continue for a few days yet.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I have been laid low by proper, honest-to-goodness flu and so I haven't been able to give blog or business the attention they are used to.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Normal service will be resumed shortly but that may still be a few days away...</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">CJ</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">UPDATE: Well, that was a rough few weeks. Thank you for all those who left messages or sent emails, it was much appreciated. I am effecting a staged return to work and part of that includes the blog post above... Hope to get back into the swing of things soon. CJ (22.2.15) </span>Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-60099480312964418902015-01-18T22:26:00.001+00:002015-01-18T22:26:39.116+00:00Baron Corvo in the Ukraine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRCrwv9lKBs/VLwqG73F9WI/AAAAAAAAQx8/3A_stpyH0ns/s1600/toto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRCrwv9lKBs/VLwqG73F9WI/AAAAAAAAQx8/3A_stpyH0ns/s1600/toto.jpg" height="400" width="306" /></a></div><div dir="ltr"><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Regular readers of some longevity may remember that way back in August 2013 I had a few spare copies of books by Frederick Rolfe Baron Corvo and offered to send them out for free on a first-come first served basis to anyone who hadn't read one in the hope of 'spreading the word' and perhaps garnering some interesting responses. I am always fascinated by people's responses to reading Rolfe for the first time and so it's been interesting to hear back from some of those who received those books. Not everyone responded and that's fine but I just didn't think anything of it when a request came in for a copy of Stories Toto Told Me (not in the edition pictured above I'm afraid!) from Ukraine.. at the point of my sending it, there was no particular issue there big enough to make international waves. As you will see from the email below that I received just before Christmas, the book was sent into a peculiar and difficult situation and has had quite a life since I sent it out. Maryna, a 24 year old ex-air traffic controller, currently studying ethnography in Lviv and spending the rest of time reading Robert Aickman and watching Slavic folk horror movies, has kindly agreed that I can reproduce her email in full... I am very grateful for it and I hope you will appreciate it as much as I have.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Hello Callum,</div><div><br /></div><div>it's Maryna from Luhansk - you sent me Baron Corvo's "Stories Toto Told Me", and haven't heard from me ever since :)</div><div><br /></div><div>My failure to deliver a proper (or whatever) review probably needs an explanation. Last winter, the situation in Eastern Ukraine turned from unstable to hellish, so one day I had to grab my backpack and flee. I had been living in a rent apartment, so lamenting over a Lost Home was out of question - even though the feeling that I'd lost my hometown was, and is, still there. But the apartment had been full of books. I only managed to get them back recently, having visited the dreaded ex-hometown - it wasn't that bad, even though my Ukrainian accent, acquired after a few months of living in Western regions, infuriated the gunners now and then. I had to leave many books behind - a highly curious Russian four-volume Meyrink collection, for instance - but most of them I carried with me in great bundles like those which ex-USSR smugglers used to carry their merchandise. "Stories Toto Told Me" was in one of the bags.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I finally got to read the collection, it reminded me of an obscure Hungarian movie, Angyali üdvözlet, or The Annunciation. All roles in it were performed by children: ten-year-old Adam and Eve leave the garden of Eden, and as the subsequent stories unfold, the film offers a pleasantly grotesque reading of the ancient and modern history. The magniloquence of the scenes' progression - there are tyrants, monarchs, revolutionaries (the latter category including Jesus and a pretty fair-haired Lucifer as well) - is subverted by the tyrants' lisp and the knights' and maidens' overdone "adult" acting, and that's precisely what makes the sight so fascinating. It's reductionist to call it a movie where the roles of adults are performed by children: it is a movie, in which the games of children are fashioned to fit the Great Narrations. "Aren't you bored?" - the crucified Jesus is asked. The characters suffer, because their Great Narrator, or their creator, is an ill-tempered grownup, and the games he invents are inevitably boring.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F12_ohWz1Aw/VLws9zLg1KI/AAAAAAAAQyI/s_bmfWncWwM/s1600/lOX0U4ZzC-U.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F12_ohWz1Aw/VLws9zLg1KI/AAAAAAAAQyI/s_bmfWncWwM/s1600/lOX0U4ZzC-U.jpg" height="292" width="400" /></a></div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>That's when a parallel to Rolfe's "Stories" comes to mind. The world of Toto's stories is a world where a benign adult, who reigns the kingdom of children, is an observer and an occasional playmate, not a capricious gamemaster or a toy store manager. I am not oblivious of connotations when I call Toto's demiurge benign, and even to a person who is unaware of Baron's biography, some digressions in "Stories" might give a rough impression <i>("they made the little divel kick and struggle, — just as I should, sir, if you whipped me naked with a whip of red-hot wires, instead of with the lilac twigs you do use when I am disobedient")</i>. There's not a vestige of artificially preserved, idolized Youth - in these stories being young is not a more favourable condition, it's simply more natural than growing up. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>"First of all, you must understand that the saints in heaven are always young; that is to say, if you are old when your life in this world comes to its end, you just shut your eyes while your angel takes you to paradise, and when you open them the next minute you are there, and you have gone back to the prime of your life, and so you are for always; but if you die while you are young you do not change your age, but remain at the age at which you died."</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Eternal youth can be a damnation - when one's master is an old man, forever jealous of his servants' games. Toto's God addresses his angels as "little brothers" - maintaining the spirit of this delicately mischievous collection. Images of teenage saints appeal to me for various reasons, but mainly because folk-Bible stories tend to get exceptionally weird when they depict young martyrs. I remember being fascinated by a book on Ivan and Jacob, who are regarded as the most controversial saints in Orthodox Christian hagiography. It is believed that a five-year-old Ivan accidentally killed his two-year-old brother, presumably during a game, and then hid in a stove and was burnt alive - again accidentally - by his parents. And our local stories of the rescue of infant Jesus are outright creepy because of his weird transformations: "She took the old man into her arms and held him to her breast. And he turned himself into a small boy in swaddling clothes."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Stories Toto Told Me" presents a brighter side of teenage martyrology. The naivete of that delightful lore which strips saints of their shining garments and dresses them in peasant clothes, is merged with Rolfe's delicate humor - and in the world which thence arises, cherubini are more impish than their pet "divels". Lately I've been contemplating Pelagia Horgan's article on the effect of religious art (Fra Angelico's in particular) on secular people. Rolfe's "Stories" are in no way "sacred" by these standards, of course, but the essayist's conclusion may be extended to embrace them: it's the artist's transforming gaze that matters. Baron Corvo/"Toto" animate solemn Christian images, and frescoes turn into lusty tricksters and young rebels who are simply too riotous to worship those stuffy pagan gods.<br /></div><div><br />Kind regards,<br />Maryna</div></div>Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-76019035516427452892015-01-13T11:23:00.001+00:002015-01-13T11:23:57.729+00:00Faber and Faber Covers: Thom Gunn & Stephen Spender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MllNygWLiUQ/VLT6pdHiP5I/AAAAAAAAQwk/xg0XWsi4iJ8/s1600/Gunn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MllNygWLiUQ/VLT6pdHiP5I/AAAAAAAAQwk/xg0XWsi4iJ8/s1600/Gunn1.jpg" height="400" width="260" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There's nothing that would much more kindle the flame of my typographically inclined heart than a collection of mid-20th Century Faber &amp; Faber poetry books. The fact that these are by two great gay poets is just an added bonus. I say 'gay' poets but, of course, their approach to man-on-man action in their lives and in their writing was very different. Thom Gunn was writing about gay subculture in poetry with confidence and clarity from the 1960s onwards. Spender, however, had a somewhat more complicated relationship with men. He had several romantic affairs with men, he was married, he spent time both denying and embracing the homosexual side of his character and even changed overtly homoerotic lines in his published poetry as they went into later editions to 'tone them down'. He was a complex man for sure but, like Gunn, much underrated now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, before the eagle eyes among you shout foul, the Thom Gunn covers <a href="http://callumjames.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thom-gunn-dustjackets-and-werewolves.html">have appeared on Front Free Endpaper before along with one my favourite poems but him</a>: but not as proper scans. The Stephen Spender, however, I have just recently added to my shelves and they seemed to go so well together I thought I would share all of them.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Qu1ANWuzVw/VLT6rXIJwzI/AAAAAAAAQw0/vZYAVRB4Eiw/s1600/Gunn2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Qu1ANWuzVw/VLT6rXIJwzI/AAAAAAAAQw0/vZYAVRB4Eiw/s1600/Gunn2.jpg" height="400" width="253" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FVxpDXeWSjg/VLT6qDEVNdI/AAAAAAAAQwo/sPQ3gMdkV2M/s1600/Gunn3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FVxpDXeWSjg/VLT6qDEVNdI/AAAAAAAAQwo/sPQ3gMdkV2M/s1600/Gunn3.jpg" height="400" width="251" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YmciRlXn6bY/VLT6vWHUZVI/AAAAAAAAQxE/NY1EWwX9-ZA/s1600/Gunn4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YmciRlXn6bY/VLT6vWHUZVI/AAAAAAAAQxE/NY1EWwX9-ZA/s1600/Gunn4.jpg" height="400" width="253" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0AUIWOrNDZs/VLT6wn1c7aI/AAAAAAAAQxM/pl8PABicwdk/s1600/Spender1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0AUIWOrNDZs/VLT6wn1c7aI/AAAAAAAAQxM/pl8PABicwdk/s1600/Spender1.jpg" height="400" width="262" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mFUvr_gaTeI/VLT6upy4quI/AAAAAAAAQw8/vUCgAvgEOjU/s1600/Spender2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mFUvr_gaTeI/VLT6upy4quI/AAAAAAAAQw8/vUCgAvgEOjU/s1600/Spender2.jpg" height="400" width="241" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dnJJhFivbrI/VLT6yAjvh_I/AAAAAAAAQxU/HGOyAnyf7hM/s1600/Spender3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dnJJhFivbrI/VLT6yAjvh_I/AAAAAAAAQxU/HGOyAnyf7hM/s1600/Spender3.jpg" height="400" width="258" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cxqsjw6Sa9g/VLT60uN8GBI/AAAAAAAAQxc/bo_cBn6QUUY/s1600/Spender4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cxqsjw6Sa9g/VLT60uN8GBI/AAAAAAAAQxc/bo_cBn6QUUY/s1600/Spender4.jpg" height="400" width="252" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eMeZE7ZYeVk/VLT61IVMoTI/AAAAAAAAQxg/QG73GhIMLiY/s1600/Spender5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eMeZE7ZYeVk/VLT61IVMoTI/AAAAAAAAQxg/QG73GhIMLiY/s1600/Spender5.jpg" height="400" width="255" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qg75sDjP2FY/VLT614rpw1I/AAAAAAAAQxs/yJb36sEek7A/s1600/Spender6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qg75sDjP2FY/VLT614rpw1I/AAAAAAAAQxs/yJb36sEek7A/s1600/Spender6.jpg" height="400" width="256" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-70610485743212570542015-01-08T20:01:00.000+00:002015-01-08T20:01:06.321+00:00Male Nudes in Die Schonheit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BCa4CHGRWsU/VK7ejAlCN5I/AAAAAAAAQwU/4pV14xVxPPo/s1600/George%2BSchmidt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BCa4CHGRWsU/VK7ejAlCN5I/AAAAAAAAQwU/4pV14xVxPPo/s1600/George%2BSchmidt.jpg" height="281" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More from the early twentieth-century German magazine<i> Die Schonheit</i> which was an organ for the early naturist movement. One of the most noticeable features is the significant amount of male nudity included in the magazine. Throughout the naturist movement's lifetime and despite strenuous protestations that the nudity was nothing at all to do with sexual attractiveness, the female nude has always massively overshadowed the male in nudist photography. The female nude is more prevalent in <i>Die Schonheit </i>too, but the men run a closer second place than usual and here are some of the contents of just a couple of volumes. The genre is a strange one and I suppose it might best be described as a kind of Arcadian meets Beefcake. The photographs of Von Gloeden also grace the pages of the magazine but none that haven't been reproduced many times on the internet and elsewhere. The photographers credited here, from the top are: George Schmidt, B. M. Muller (two photos), Hanni Schwarz (three photos), M Schadewald, Marie Anna Freimut and Rudulf Zima.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sCzZUnQ63uE/VK7cudWPhvI/AAAAAAAAQvE/k59lfVP2tG0/s1600/B%2BM%2BMuller2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sCzZUnQ63uE/VK7cudWPhvI/AAAAAAAAQvE/k59lfVP2tG0/s1600/B%2BM%2BMuller2.jpg" height="400" width="281" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8Acz1rIz7M/VK7cub_CscI/AAAAAAAAQvA/uoiEwE7czRs/s1600/B%2BM%2BMuller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8Acz1rIz7M/VK7cub_CscI/AAAAAAAAQvA/uoiEwE7czRs/s1600/B%2BM%2BMuller.jpg" height="400" width="325" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6lQcHocRa7U/VK7cwrV3ctI/AAAAAAAAQvY/etI0M4YU5PA/s1600/HanniSchwarz2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6lQcHocRa7U/VK7cwrV3ctI/AAAAAAAAQvY/etI0M4YU5PA/s1600/HanniSchwarz2.jpg" height="255" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jBZZdTn7SI4/VK7cyS7J4RI/AAAAAAAAQvg/5gx1QTj_DHc/s1600/HanniSchwarz3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jBZZdTn7SI4/VK7cyS7J4RI/AAAAAAAAQvg/5gx1QTj_DHc/s1600/HanniSchwarz3.jpg" height="400" width="250" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GzQPRfxr1bk/VK7cy-fVG-I/AAAAAAAAQvk/3qy-3-bMfEY/s1600/Herdis%2BDuphorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GzQPRfxr1bk/VK7cy-fVG-I/AAAAAAAAQvk/3qy-3-bMfEY/s1600/Herdis%2BDuphorn.jpg" height="400" width="245" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-574RV22WO3s/VK7cu2v2vwI/AAAAAAAAQvM/QGbQ3vjkpIg/s1600/HanniSchwarz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-574RV22WO3s/VK7cu2v2vwI/AAAAAAAAQvM/QGbQ3vjkpIg/s1600/HanniSchwarz.jpg" height="400" width="263" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o05hQX9oRz4/VK7c1WL61wI/AAAAAAAAQv4/GIERIW17V8g/s1600/M%2BSchadewald.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o05hQX9oRz4/VK7c1WL61wI/AAAAAAAAQv4/GIERIW17V8g/s1600/M%2BSchadewald.jpg" height="400" width="275" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fdqOKVzbegc/VK7c14n9KvI/AAAAAAAAQv8/uVeyCC21yq8/s1600/Marie%2BAnna%2BFreimut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fdqOKVzbegc/VK7c14n9KvI/AAAAAAAAQv8/uVeyCC21yq8/s1600/Marie%2BAnna%2BFreimut.jpg" height="288" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QUxSHFvzdnw/VK7c23RTd7I/AAAAAAAAQwI/UDClIJmc4CQ/s1600/Rudolf%2BZima.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QUxSHFvzdnw/VK7c23RTd7I/AAAAAAAAQwI/UDClIJmc4CQ/s1600/Rudolf%2BZima.jpg" height="400" width="286" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-9638647194560517792015-01-06T22:50:00.000+00:002015-01-06T22:50:01.856+00:00Fidus in Die Schönheit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qsoSd6tnq1k/VKxezZ7Hm3I/AAAAAAAAQuM/UkT5_1Saeag/s1600/Fidus2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qsoSd6tnq1k/VKxezZ7Hm3I/AAAAAAAAQuM/UkT5_1Saeag/s1600/Fidus2.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></div><br />I recently acquired a run of the pre-ww1 volumes of a German magazine called <i>Die</i> <span class="st"><em>Schönheit</em></span> simply, 'Beauty'. It was a haven for Nacktkultur, the early twentieth century German movement which, in large degree was the beginning of naturism and a starting point also for numerous other twentieth century health and wellbeing movements. The magazine was produced by a publishing house of the same name whose other publications were all related to the burgeoning naturist movement. The magazine is packed full of the work of symbolist artists as illustrations and one that stands out among them is Fidus, that is, Hugo Höppener (1868–1948) who gained his nickname, meaning 'faithful' because he went to prison for a brief spell following a conviction for public nudity. He spent his early life in communes and his spiritual beliefs, he was a Theosophist, led him to eventually embrace Nazi ideology. Having said that, the Nazis didn't embrace him back and they seized and banned his work. These images all come from just one volume of <i>Die</i> <span class="st"><em>Schönheit</em></span>, giving an idea of how prolific he was. He was also illustrating for <i>Jugend</i> and for the early gay magazine <i>Der Eigene</i> at the time. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s1drlOnnxfk/VKxe0KWZmFI/AAAAAAAAQuU/VmEoeDLRVnw/s1600/Fidus3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s1drlOnnxfk/VKxe0KWZmFI/AAAAAAAAQuU/VmEoeDLRVnw/s1600/Fidus3.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wig52U0cbOc/VKxe2E9ZwxI/AAAAAAAAQug/aBV180oFhII/s1600/Fidus4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wig52U0cbOc/VKxe2E9ZwxI/AAAAAAAAQug/aBV180oFhII/s1600/Fidus4.jpg" height="307" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vUk5ih1pbUw/VKxe2y8jJII/AAAAAAAAQuo/P5RIXZ73rHQ/s1600/Fidus5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vUk5ih1pbUw/VKxe2y8jJII/AAAAAAAAQuo/P5RIXZ73rHQ/s1600/Fidus5.jpg" height="317" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qVZzB4T0o_A/VKxe4whb0HI/AAAAAAAAQuw/TOlp5Ln3PWM/s1600/Fidus6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qVZzB4T0o_A/VKxe4whb0HI/AAAAAAAAQuw/TOlp5Ln3PWM/s1600/Fidus6.jpg" height="400" width="303" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E31SX2FkJFM/VKxey2n4h3I/AAAAAAAAQuI/YmZHd5Oo7xs/s1600/Fidus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E31SX2FkJFM/VKxey2n4h3I/AAAAAAAAQuI/YmZHd5Oo7xs/s1600/Fidus.jpg" height="400" width="272" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-53629250350919065712015-01-06T00:26:00.001+00:002015-01-06T00:26:10.811+00:00Vintage Photos: A Selection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QAWKyhXdHko/VKsqTbMrIpI/AAAAAAAAQtQ/rZ6IQtizYQg/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QAWKyhXdHko/VKsqTbMrIpI/AAAAAAAAQtQ/rZ6IQtizYQg/s1600/1.JPG" height="400" width="277" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">None of these belong to me I'm afraid, although I did help the bidding along on a number of them. The first five photos are from the ebay shop of the wonderful Chuck who, God knows how, manages to present desirable vintage photos in some quantity almost every week. You will find his current items for sale here. The last scan is gratefully received from John, a reader of Front Free Endpaper. Rover Scouts were, I'm told, for young men aged 17-23 who wanted to continue in the organisation: apart from the horribly awkward name of the author, John was rather enjoying the acrobatic positions on the front cover!&nbsp; </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AnFOd8UAP88/VKsqT3bibZI/AAAAAAAAQtY/7KsY6UT-k_Y/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AnFOd8UAP88/VKsqT3bibZI/AAAAAAAAQtY/7KsY6UT-k_Y/s1600/2.JPG" height="235" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vmcms3TZUcs/VKsqUAHlYEI/AAAAAAAAQtc/4OQFGVVegKM/s1600/3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vmcms3TZUcs/VKsqUAHlYEI/AAAAAAAAQtc/4OQFGVVegKM/s1600/3.JPG" height="400" width="258" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zzzUEL1tvsA/VKsqVEhECzI/AAAAAAAAQto/JdU0TwmUVCg/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zzzUEL1tvsA/VKsqVEhECzI/AAAAAAAAQto/JdU0TwmUVCg/s1600/4.JPG" height="283" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4YMw3KQ8fEo/VKsqWYevHUI/AAAAAAAAQtw/W89p3qma7XY/s1600/5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4YMw3KQ8fEo/VKsqWYevHUI/AAAAAAAAQtw/W89p3qma7XY/s1600/5.JPG" height="282" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WanqLJ_6N8/VKsqZc4FG4I/AAAAAAAAQt4/IT2lB0OZ598/s1600/Cover%20illustrating%20%27Ideas%20for%20Rover%20Scouts%27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8WanqLJ_6N8/VKsqZc4FG4I/AAAAAAAAQt4/IT2lB0OZ598/s1600/Cover%20illustrating%20'Ideas%20for%20Rover%20Scouts'.jpg" height="342" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-20815971935328724282015-01-02T21:27:00.002+00:002015-01-02T21:27:20.558+00:00Mystery Patterned Paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tHRMFVizFaQ/VKcKMNbgUoI/AAAAAAAAQtA/1QQOamr0aqE/s1600/smiths1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tHRMFVizFaQ/VKcKMNbgUoI/AAAAAAAAQtA/1QQOamr0aqE/s1600/smiths1.jpg" height="278" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This piece of paper was used to create a makeshift dust jacket for a book, I guess sometime in the 1940s or 50s and it didn't separate from the book until 2014 so it did a pretty good job. But it's a bit of a mystery. It has the look of something designed by Enid Marx, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Obviously, it was originally a retailer's paper bag, and presumably they were called "Smiths". It's tempting to think of W. H. Smith but I'm sure it's not theirs as they have had quite consistent design elements in their logos for decades and nothing like this. So, a bit of a mystery. As ever, if anyone passing this way wants to have a guess or has solid intelligence then please do use either the comments below or the email contact link to let me know what you think.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JEjL1jLR1xI/VKcKM7ZBfBI/AAAAAAAAQtE/Wwq8Ehk02H4/s1600/smiths2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JEjL1jLR1xI/VKcKM7ZBfBI/AAAAAAAAQtE/Wwq8Ehk02H4/s1600/smiths2.jpg" height="348" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-71982356964496773402015-01-01T21:23:00.000+00:002015-01-01T21:23:52.190+00:00A New Statue by Stuart Sandford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9_BhCbofP20/VKW1zyG51DI/AAAAAAAAQsQ/2xdJ4gna-tg/s1600/DSC_0184_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9_BhCbofP20/VKW1zyG51DI/AAAAAAAAQsQ/2xdJ4gna-tg/s1600/DSC_0184_grande.jpg" height="400" width="265" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A little while ago the British artist Stuart Sandford caused something of a stir with his <a href="http://www.sebastianbystuartsandford.com/pages/about-sebastian">life-sized statue Sebastian</a>, using a professional male fashion model (called Sebastian) in his underwear 'shooting' himself with a camera rather than a bow there were obvious classical references as well as clearly contemporary commentary. At the end of last month <a href="http://www.sebastianbystuartsandford.com/blogs/news/16376740-statue-commission-brad-2014">Sandford announced another statue</a>, again made with 3D scanning technology but this time fabricated in aluminium and then painted and as the artist himself tweeted, "this time naked". It is a private commission based on Frederick Leighton's 1880s statue, "The Sluggard"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKI7ydHJWqM/VKW10T9NpwI/AAAAAAAAQsU/bBvBDdABD4w/s1600/DSC_0188_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKI7ydHJWqM/VKW10T9NpwI/AAAAAAAAQsU/bBvBDdABD4w/s1600/DSC_0188_grande.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rc3DsOY61IY/VKW10VpqZ3I/AAAAAAAAQsk/ZpZFqTFPQx8/s1600/DSC_0189_grande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rc3DsOY61IY/VKW10VpqZ3I/AAAAAAAAQsk/ZpZFqTFPQx8/s1600/DSC_0189_grande.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vt1IbvFuhpI/VKW10iqWpLI/AAAAAAAAQsY/WUZ_EQusKh8/s1600/sandford1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vt1IbvFuhpI/VKW10iqWpLI/AAAAAAAAQsY/WUZ_EQusKh8/s1600/sandford1.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-68586691081466997762014-12-30T12:51:00.001+00:002014-12-30T14:13:19.981+00:00Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde: Two New Catalogues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ymd-i-F-hSE/VKKeHrDgmHI/AAAAAAAAQsA/qVdTfLA6yNI/s1600/pdfcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ymd-i-F-hSE/VKKeHrDgmHI/AAAAAAAAQsA/qVdTfLA6yNI/s1600/pdfcover.jpg" height="400" width="316" /></a></div><br />Two new catalogues at the same time! Each is a short list of books related to one particular author, that is, Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde. These are not lists of rare first editions and holograph letters but are the collection of an interested reader, enthusiast and amateur scholar and, as such, the lists contain loads of affordable and interesting material for the same kind of person. Over 150 items relating to Carroll and Alice and nearly 80 Wilde items. The catalogues are produced in digital form only and can be perused here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.callumjamesbooks.com/carroll.pdf">http://www.callumjamesbooks.com/carroll.pdf</a><br /><br />and<br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1343552536"><br /></a><a href="http://www.callumjamesbooks.com/wilde.pdf">http://www.callumjamesbooks.com/wilde.pdf</a><br /><br /><br />Members of my mailing list had advanced warning of these catalogues and if you would like to be included in that elect band next time around just drop me an email to let me know.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NYQDucrQVuQ/VKKeFxVmCQI/AAAAAAAAQr4/wTvtofteQ8A/s1600/pdfcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NYQDucrQVuQ/VKKeFxVmCQI/AAAAAAAAQr4/wTvtofteQ8A/s1600/pdfcover.jpg" height="400" width="316" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-17880067664179466182014-12-29T23:02:00.001+00:002014-12-29T23:02:59.398+00:00Clanland: Men in Kilts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B8iFVH1Rgcw/VKHYRPlB3JI/AAAAAAAAQqw/_0E6CEtbTI4/s1600/clan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B8iFVH1Rgcw/VKHYRPlB3JI/AAAAAAAAQqw/_0E6CEtbTI4/s1600/clan1.jpg" height="400" width="288" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the 1930s-1950s the train companies in the UK were great ones for issuing books. Perhaps the most famous, because of it's association with John Betjeman was <i>Metroland</i> but this kind of promotional book that had real content and decent artwork about a region was a country-wide phenomena and this has to be one of my favourites, <i>Clanland</i> was published by London, Midland and Scottish Hotels, part of the LMS rail network. In it the land of the Clans was 'painted and described by William Stewart' and the result are these fabulous demonstrations of the various clan tartans that range from the atmospheric, through the humorous to the high camp. With Scottish festivities coming up it seemed an appropriate time for men in kilts!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wzNrwLikaNI/VKHYSJhdHaI/AAAAAAAAQq8/4Vpb393gXUY/s1600/clan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wzNrwLikaNI/VKHYSJhdHaI/AAAAAAAAQq8/4Vpb393gXUY/s1600/clan2.jpg" height="400" width="285" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pV_taCiJ6Bw/VKHYR4pqKTI/AAAAAAAAQq0/hS3X4gRSh8M/s1600/clan3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pV_taCiJ6Bw/VKHYR4pqKTI/AAAAAAAAQq0/hS3X4gRSh8M/s1600/clan3.jpg" height="400" width="286" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LGZjqJXHrgE/VKHYS5nRk9I/AAAAAAAAQrE/2g3iS7GSw0U/s1600/clan4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LGZjqJXHrgE/VKHYS5nRk9I/AAAAAAAAQrE/2g3iS7GSw0U/s1600/clan4.jpg" height="400" width="295" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wXqd1ZoRaH8/VKHYUTKWhbI/AAAAAAAAQrQ/H4tMvqIq7p4/s1600/clan5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wXqd1ZoRaH8/VKHYUTKWhbI/AAAAAAAAQrQ/H4tMvqIq7p4/s1600/clan5.jpg" height="400" width="287" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f8YAf4E88c8/VKHYUkbXsVI/AAAAAAAAQrU/1KInxTXmd-8/s1600/clan6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f8YAf4E88c8/VKHYUkbXsVI/AAAAAAAAQrU/1KInxTXmd-8/s1600/clan6.jpg" height="400" width="292" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--r0phNv7g6k/VKHYVR-ai-I/AAAAAAAAQrg/LFnT4RbxIdQ/s1600/clan7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--r0phNv7g6k/VKHYVR-ai-I/AAAAAAAAQrg/LFnT4RbxIdQ/s1600/clan7.jpg" height="400" width="292" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jJEQFWESZY4/VKHYWKx2jLI/AAAAAAAAQro/7V_DQ8HIAkQ/s1600/clan8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jJEQFWESZY4/VKHYWKx2jLI/AAAAAAAAQro/7V_DQ8HIAkQ/s1600/clan8.jpg" height="400" width="292" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-21600449263391861512014-12-18T23:53:00.000+00:002014-12-18T23:53:21.889+00:00"My Four Year Old Could Have Done That..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nIEASYlbv0Y/VJNnkTkqjWI/AAAAAAAAQqA/9Qz2ey7vN6c/s1600/kp1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nIEASYlbv0Y/VJNnkTkqjWI/AAAAAAAAQqA/9Qz2ey7vN6c/s1600/kp1.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... well probably not! I'm not a subscriber to this view of twentieth century art but I was struck today by the images in the King Penguin book, <i>Children As Artists</i> by R. R. Tomlinson. The title probably gives away that this is a book that takes children's art seriously and when you look at the images they found to illustrate the book it's amazing how so many of them wouldn't look in the least bit out of place on the walls of say, The Pallant Gallery in Chichester with it's collection of mid-Twentieth century art. There is a real sense of the neo-romantic in lots of these images, made all the more poignant by the fact that, as the book was published in 1947, much of the subject matter deals with a child's experience of war.I think if I posted these as if they were the work of a serious artist with no reference to their age, it's possible you would not think twice about it.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OW94sFq5MfI/VJNnkW7kWYI/AAAAAAAAQqE/o4rjbunKu1Y/s1600/kp3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OW94sFq5MfI/VJNnkW7kWYI/AAAAAAAAQqE/o4rjbunKu1Y/s1600/kp3.jpg" height="303" width="400" /></a><a href="https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-NMbdP7XpL7o%2FVJNnj8h4cJI%2FAAAAAAAAQp8%2FpZdnUwUTmRI%2Fs1600%2Fkp2.jpg&amp;container=blogger&amp;gadget=a&amp;rewriteMime=image%2F*" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NMbdP7XpL7o/VJNnj8h4cJI/AAAAAAAAQp8/pZdnUwUTmRI/s1600/kp2.jpg" height="290" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sMAwCdUVGhA/VJNnl9gFaCI/AAAAAAAAQqU/e_TQdy090kg/s1600/kp4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sMAwCdUVGhA/VJNnl9gFaCI/AAAAAAAAQqU/e_TQdy090kg/s1600/kp4.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ld4EZ8m-SrI/VJNnmaUHSJI/AAAAAAAAQqY/gcJ1OuN-Wlk/s1600/kp5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ld4EZ8m-SrI/VJNnmaUHSJI/AAAAAAAAQqY/gcJ1OuN-Wlk/s1600/kp5.jpg" height="400" width="305" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-24714995322191407762014-12-18T23:31:00.002+00:002014-12-18T23:31:53.599+00:00Sir Allen Lane: 50 Years in Publishing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-idvTe7DcJL0/VJNhujESnPI/AAAAAAAAQpk/WhAYSc3g4O0/s1600/allen1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-idvTe7DcJL0/VJNhujESnPI/AAAAAAAAQpk/WhAYSc3g4O0/s1600/allen1.jpg" height="300" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I adore book and publishing related ephemera. So imagine my delight this evening when these two fell from inside a book I was looking at.&nbsp; This is the invitation and the menu from a dinner at the House of Commons to mark 50 years in publishing of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Lane">Sir Allen Lane</a>, the founder of Penguin Books and with the right to be thought of as one of the most important people in the story of the book in the Twentieth Century (he joined The Bodely Head in 1919 at the age of 17). And if the menu is anything to go by, I imagine a good time was had by all. Presumably these are rather scarce items too!</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZPtnJelpZJk/VJNhurmjZHI/AAAAAAAAQps/CE0qhRP6dzA/s1600/allen2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZPtnJelpZJk/VJNhurmjZHI/AAAAAAAAQps/CE0qhRP6dzA/s1600/allen2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-29912198938821177222014-12-13T22:46:00.003+00:002014-12-13T22:47:07.479+00:00Jean Cocteau Drawings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4QDxAEuqjVY/VIy_mMajLGI/AAAAAAAAQow/GSRTjIJntxA/s1600/coct1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4QDxAEuqjVY/VIy_mMajLGI/AAAAAAAAQow/GSRTjIJntxA/s1600/coct1.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></div><br />As a boy in my mid-teens I found myself in possession of an ex-library copy of Jean Cocteau's <i>The White Book</i>. I would like to think that by ex-library I mean a withdrawn surplus book but sadly I think I may have been a little less scrupulous in those days and its possible my fourteen year old fingers were light enough to remove it from the library's stock without giving them the option of deciding whether is was surplus. Both the texts and Cocteau's illustrations were among the most informative things a young man in search of his sexuality could have laid hands on and I kept that book for many years.<br /><br />Consequently, I have something of a soft spot for Cocteau's drawings. His clearly distinctive style doesn't belie an extraordinary ability to draw. These I found recently in an old auction catalogue. The auction also included a copy of <i>The White Book</i> bound with a sketch and a finished original illustration for the book. But <i>The White Book </i>illustrations and a number of others with titles such as "Deux marins" and "Deux hommes nus" were clearly too much for the cataloguer and the bottommost image in this post shows how they were dealt with.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C44HXN02NSQ/VIy_mZ8eA9I/AAAAAAAAQo0/CPsVtbTDxss/s1600/coct2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C44HXN02NSQ/VIy_mZ8eA9I/AAAAAAAAQo0/CPsVtbTDxss/s1600/coct2.jpg" height="400" width="302" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BVbEIt0qufY/VIy_mxJGvXI/AAAAAAAAQpA/gf2I8QMpAXY/s1600/coct3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BVbEIt0qufY/VIy_mxJGvXI/AAAAAAAAQpA/gf2I8QMpAXY/s1600/coct3.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YJs1vPNd0ZE/VIy_n5ob-UI/AAAAAAAAQpM/6QIfG3-WABU/s1600/coct4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YJs1vPNd0ZE/VIy_n5ob-UI/AAAAAAAAQpM/6QIfG3-WABU/s1600/coct4.jpg" height="400" width="323" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8jOkAaGYU2A/VIy_n5LEpGI/AAAAAAAAQpI/1lX69brczuU/s1600/coct5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8jOkAaGYU2A/VIy_n5LEpGI/AAAAAAAAQpI/1lX69brczuU/s1600/coct5.jpg" height="400" width="290" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-2369483739169967162014-12-13T22:36:00.001+00:002014-12-13T22:47:01.191+00:00Last One From The Collection...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HGtEHcS_hbs/VIy_OKVyHJI/AAAAAAAAQoo/pk3EMLUu854/s1600/gymn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HGtEHcS_hbs/VIy_OKVyHJI/AAAAAAAAQoo/pk3EMLUu854/s1600/gymn1.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />... for a while.<br /><br />This is the last in a series of photos for my collection that I bought recently and which have been dropping on the mat under the postman's hand over the course of the last week or so. It's been scanned very large so worth viewing at full size. Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-56938986662016127992014-12-12T22:37:00.000+00:002014-12-12T22:37:03.383+00:00Some More Vintage Swim Photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SY2SRHHglc8/VItsy0nLQ_I/AAAAAAAAQoI/qWilB_9b8q0/s1600/swimdec1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SY2SRHHglc8/VItsy0nLQ_I/AAAAAAAAQoI/qWilB_9b8q0/s1600/swimdec1.jpg" height="400" width="246" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Three rather nice photos for the collection arrived this morning. Two of them even properly qualify for the vintage the swimwear theme. Having said that though, the team photo at the bottom is rather fun, even if the Northwest Champions do appear to be wearing shorts made from the silky material of their grannies' slips! </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7_a1MPXe3o/VIts02TutUI/AAAAAAAAQoQ/OjtmtgLf6tI/s1600/swimdec2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7_a1MPXe3o/VIts02TutUI/AAAAAAAAQoQ/OjtmtgLf6tI/s1600/swimdec2.jpg" height="400" width="230" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bsDRonr432E/VIts3A9vo2I/AAAAAAAAQoY/a2Hu6l11MXs/s1600/swimdec3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bsDRonr432E/VIts3A9vo2I/AAAAAAAAQoY/a2Hu6l11MXs/s1600/swimdec3.jpg" height="238" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-33934976686163752862014-12-10T22:16:00.001+00:002014-12-10T22:16:45.584+00:00Eike Von Stukenbrok<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/85763073" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/85763073">Eike Von Stuckenbrok - The Beauty of a Dyslexic Mind</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/avantgardediaries">The Avant/Garde Diaries</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br />The Blessed Eike Von Stuckenbrok has<a href="http://callumjames.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=eike"> featured a number of times on Front Free Endpaper</a> and I make no apologies for that - who would want them! But every now and again some new imagery pops up although, in this instance I understand that it is 'new to me' so excuse me if you have seen these as I realise they have been around a while. The video above is a commercially sponsored one which is based around the Nietzsche quote: “Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."<br /><br />The photos below are from a couple of years ago at least and are by the <a href="http://www.bertil.uk/">Swedish-born, London-based photographer Bertil Nilsso</a>n, most of whose work is with dancers and circus performers. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6shAklSXwrk/VIjGDLEL08I/AAAAAAAAQnc/Cm0tUX1Kcps/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6shAklSXwrk/VIjGDLEL08I/AAAAAAAAQnc/Cm0tUX1Kcps/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o1_500.jpg" height="400" width="313" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psY6u5EI_fo/VIjGFAmcLKI/AAAAAAAAQnk/ymCJkHLpzR8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o2_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psY6u5EI_fo/VIjGFAmcLKI/AAAAAAAAQnk/ymCJkHLpzR8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o2_1280.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9SstIvXpK38/VIjGFvgzFkI/AAAAAAAAQno/8-pAH83GbS8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o3_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9SstIvXpK38/VIjGFvgzFkI/AAAAAAAAQno/8-pAH83GbS8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o3_1280.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3VU00TSWHSs/VIjGG_1n5EI/AAAAAAAAQn0/J5qyOowHgZ8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o4_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3VU00TSWHSs/VIjGG_1n5EI/AAAAAAAAQn0/J5qyOowHgZ8/s1600/tumblr_m60xfgIIfB1rye555o4_1280.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-71364513986415138472014-12-10T00:02:00.002+00:002014-12-10T00:02:53.408+00:00Photo Collection Odds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sdt389vI8Mo/VIeLKpRnQZI/AAAAAAAAQmo/6d9RFKJdlA8/s1600/odds1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sdt389vI8Mo/VIeLKpRnQZI/AAAAAAAAQmo/6d9RFKJdlA8/s1600/odds1.jpg" height="298" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I buy photos for my 'vintage swimwear' collection, I like them to be primarily of, you know, swimwear or to have some connection. But I'm not strict about this. Many are the photos that are in those albums that don't really qualify as swimwear photos at all but that I just happen to like. To my mind a photograph is often made more interesting by a bit if damage, or perhaps by being somewhat abstractly taken, of being out of focus a little. These are just a few of the non-vintage swimwear pics which have turned up on my doormat at the hands of the postman in the last week or so: they are all out of context and have nothing to elucidate them so they must stand as images in their own right.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RsL43YIqjq8/VIeLN-KZirI/AAAAAAAAQmw/ZDq6n6wYRtQ/s1600/odds2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RsL43YIqjq8/VIeLN-KZirI/AAAAAAAAQmw/ZDq6n6wYRtQ/s1600/odds2.jpg" height="198" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ue_4UdJxOZs/VIeLJCMbOrI/AAAAAAAAQmg/4dLgbjGwwmY/s1600/odds3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ue_4UdJxOZs/VIeLJCMbOrI/AAAAAAAAQmg/4dLgbjGwwmY/s1600/odds3.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nXcuFn836V4/VIeLOYlaeSI/AAAAAAAAQm0/fyMnDXqIbv0/s1600/odds4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nXcuFn836V4/VIeLOYlaeSI/AAAAAAAAQm0/fyMnDXqIbv0/s1600/odds4.jpg" height="277" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C-szvYc39Rc/VIeMRH1A_EI/AAAAAAAAQnE/LMsOaaIThtw/s1600/odds5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C-szvYc39Rc/VIeMRH1A_EI/AAAAAAAAQnE/LMsOaaIThtw/s1600/odds5.jpg" height="400" width="331" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6nMoeMGqZuk/VIeMRR2AcdI/AAAAAAAAQnI/c7UXxR_9KgQ/s1600/odds6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6nMoeMGqZuk/VIeMRR2AcdI/AAAAAAAAQnI/c7UXxR_9KgQ/s1600/odds6.jpg" height="400" width="315" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-16597012958091422452014-12-03T21:27:00.002+00:002014-12-03T21:27:36.715+00:00Beautiful Glass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AfgkgfV5IhM/VH9-pA4L_kI/AAAAAAAAQls/Gv8iqYJWQAE/s1600/sklo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AfgkgfV5IhM/VH9-pA4L_kI/AAAAAAAAQls/Gv8iqYJWQAE/s1600/sklo2.jpg" height="400" width="358" /></a></div><br />I've recently been helping sort through and catalogue a huge collection of books on glass and every now and again as you flick the pages things leap out at you. This might be the first time that glass has featured on Front Free Endpaper but these are things that caught my eye today. From top to bottom we have a classically inspired vase by Czech designer, Jaroslav Horejc from 1925, then a boy blowing bubbles by Otto Hofner, another Czech from just before the First World War; the rest were all produced by the American Steuben company who worked with some really big names in the art world to provide images to be engraved on their glass Jacob Epstein, Don Wier, Pavel Tchelitchew and Henri Matisse are the ones I have chosen to show here. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mr6EKDAN3TQ/VH9-pLAs3RI/AAAAAAAAQlo/eGncJMhJY2Y/s1600/sklo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mr6EKDAN3TQ/VH9-pLAs3RI/AAAAAAAAQlo/eGncJMhJY2Y/s1600/sklo1.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8rA_IA2BZZg/VH9-pjlFr-I/AAAAAAAAQlw/q_Dhptb5bOc/s1600/steuben1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8rA_IA2BZZg/VH9-pjlFr-I/AAAAAAAAQlw/q_Dhptb5bOc/s1600/steuben1.jpg" height="400" width="341" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E2zWlBtzUwQ/VH9-qRzWWfI/AAAAAAAAQmA/B2hoJHNhyDg/s1600/steuben2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E2zWlBtzUwQ/VH9-qRzWWfI/AAAAAAAAQmA/B2hoJHNhyDg/s1600/steuben2.jpg" height="400" width="342" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPMVTy77-UI/VH9-rYCm2qI/AAAAAAAAQmI/WPpC2_S0mMI/s1600/steuben3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPMVTy77-UI/VH9-rYCm2qI/AAAAAAAAQmI/WPpC2_S0mMI/s1600/steuben3.jpg" height="400" width="345" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NV1uBhcAJgY/VH9-rgBu8_I/AAAAAAAAQmM/QJY4iTyWIKI/s1600/steuben4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NV1uBhcAJgY/VH9-rgBu8_I/AAAAAAAAQmM/QJY4iTyWIKI/s1600/steuben4.jpg" height="400" width="336" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13214717.post-89169831671182906112014-11-30T00:34:00.002+00:002014-12-01T01:30:53.196+00:00Found Photos: Sky Blue Speedos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mfdknmQUQyg/VHpjScOq_pI/AAAAAAAAQkw/uVJZkIaAfB0/s1600/road1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mfdknmQUQyg/VHpjScOq_pI/AAAAAAAAQkw/uVJZkIaAfB0/s1600/road1.jpg" height="400" width="272" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">About fifteen years ago I was living in South East London. On a swelteringly hot day in the summer I was coming home from walking a friend's dog in the park when, at the top of a dusty <i>cul-de-sac</i>, I came across a suitcase which had burst open and, scattered all over the road, a load of photographs. It appeared, although why this should be the case I have no idea, that the suitcase had been thrown to the ground, perhaps from a moving car, and the photographs which had been inside had scattered. As you might imagine from this sample, they caught my eye, and I retrieved as many as I could from the ground and took them home.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The photographs appear to be of an older couple and a young man, who may or may not be their son, on a boating holiday, around France. From the clothes that are worn in some of the other photos, and possibly also from the printed code on the back of some of them, I would guess they were taken in the early 1990s, that is, about eight to ten years before I found them. The young man in his sky-blue speedos may well be forty by now. At the time I did my civic duty and took them to the police station and handed them over as lost property but after a while, if unclaimed, you can claim them yourself: which I did.&nbsp; I really thought I might be able to track down the original owners but there are simply no identifying features in the photos. Even the boat, of which there are numerous very clear shots, conspired not to allow it's name to be seen in any of the photographs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This isn't a call for help to find the people in the photographs, but if you should ever happen by this blog and see your younger self staring out at you, please do get in touch. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4EnHr4phM4/VHpjSzCoAGI/AAAAAAAAQk0/lbOimTvXseU/s1600/road2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4EnHr4phM4/VHpjSzCoAGI/AAAAAAAAQk0/lbOimTvXseU/s1600/road2.jpg" height="400" width="262" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fvjcd5f_mVc/VHpjTN8uEfI/AAAAAAAAQk8/wKFtDVLf8-4/s1600/road3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fvjcd5f_mVc/VHpjTN8uEfI/AAAAAAAAQk8/wKFtDVLf8-4/s1600/road3.jpg" height="400" width="271" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1DZnOjovL24/VHpjUC1nmOI/AAAAAAAAQlI/L2Pee6MGDJI/s1600/road4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1DZnOjovL24/VHpjUC1nmOI/AAAAAAAAQlI/L2Pee6MGDJI/s1600/road4.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEi1QdIHd6M/VHpjVl-o7NI/AAAAAAAAQlQ/Zx10_wL5pbg/s1600/road5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEi1QdIHd6M/VHpjVl-o7NI/AAAAAAAAQlQ/Zx10_wL5pbg/s1600/road5.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbnBe17u49Q/VHpjWHk8TrI/AAAAAAAAQlU/k-f3p78vacQ/s1600/road6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbnBe17u49Q/VHpjWHk8TrI/AAAAAAAAQlU/k-f3p78vacQ/s1600/road6.jpg" height="270" width="400" /></a></div><br />Callumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17848777273108328886noreply@blogger.com5